A slight spoiler, but there's a reason why some spaces are '?' - they hint that one specific type of creature may be nearby. (Think of the one that looks like a Beholder from D&D).
For the walls - think of them as an HP sink. The game largely revolves around using your health as efficiently as possible to explore the board. Walls are useful since you can attack them 1 HP at a time to get the XP out of them (thus allowing you to always fully use your allotment before refilling your health).
> The thing that I continue to find most confusing is that sometimes a square has a question mark instead of a number. From looking at boards after I lose there does not appear any pattern to this.
It took me a second to figure this out, too. Here's a couple hints (base64 encoded to prevent spoilers for other folks:
Hint: QXQgdGhlIGRlYXRoIHNjcmVlbiwgdGFrZSBhIGNhcmVmdWwgbG9vayBhdCB3aGF0J3MgKipuZWFyYnkqKiB0aGUgcXVlc3Rpb24tbWFyayBzcXVhcmVzCg==
Answer: VGhlIGdhemVyIGVuZW15IG1ha2VzIGFkamFjZW50IHNxdWFyZXMgc2hvdyBhID8uIFRoaXMgZWZmZWN0IGV4dGVuZHMgcGFzdCB3YWxscyBhcyB3ZWxsLgo=
See my comment above. After I learned a few essentials that are not mentioned the game became very reasonable and more enjoyable
Two things bother me though.
The thing that I continue to find most confusing is that sometimes a square has a question mark instead of a number. From looking at boards after I lose there does not appear any pattern to this.
The other thing that's strange is the "wall" squares -- seems like a wall can take a couple of hits to break, you can't die from a wall, and you seem to get damage each time you hit it and an arbitrary amount of gold from breaking it. Does anyone have any better ideas on how these work?